Sep 22 2008

One for the Guinness Book

Human beings are seemingly hard wired for one-upmanship, so it's no surprise that the renewable energy industry, for all its polite social consciousness, has its share of healthy competition.

The latest example comes courtesy of Fortune magazine, which reports that Clipper Windpower of Carpinteria, California plans to upscale its previously announced plans to sell the world's largest wind turbine to The Crown Estate, which controls the Queen of England's holdings. The proposed offshore turbine is gargantuan enough to scare even a T-Rex: 574 feet high, with blades stretching the length of two soccer fields. Its peak production capacity will be 10 megawatts, enough to power several thousand homes (when the wind is blowing).

The current wind turbine record holder, by some accounts, is the Enercon E-126, a 6-7 megawatt German behemoth with a rotor diameter of 413 feet. The Führlander wind turbine, also made in Germany, produces "only" about 2.5 MW, but stands an incredible 672 feet tall, almost half the height of the Empire State Building.

Turbine makers aren't producing such monsters just to make it into the Guinness Book of World Records. If you remember your high school math, the area of a circle--the area swept by the turbine's rotors--increases with the square of the radius. There are also economies of scale in terms of the costs of land acquisition, construction, electronics, and grid connections.

Of course, there are downsides, too - starting with the fact that one of these machines might be a bit too big for your backyard!

Posted by: Jonathan Marshall | Comments (0) digg delicioussend to a friendprint entry

 

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Energy , Wind

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  • This is being rather generous to Lutz. 1. The "Volt", in no small part, will be targeted as a product to people who care about energy and environmental issues. These people don't embrace Lutz' antideluvian concepts of rejecting science. How responsible is it for a GM executive to be rejecting the science? 2. As well, Lutz didn't exactly sound too enthusiastic about the Volt itself. 3. And, GM public communications has 'defended' Lutz in rather absurd ways. -A Siegel
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  • This article is right on - small businesses have a huge role to play in sustainability. Not only do they add up in aggregate, but many small businesses operate in industries that can have a significant environmental impact depending on the exact practices, like dry cleaners, auto repair shops, etc. Green is also starting to affect the bottom line more and more, customers are increasingly voting with their feet for more sustainable businesses as can be seen from the growth of sites like http://www.ecovian.com. This is also a huge opportunity for small businesses to leapfrog their bigger brothers by being more agile in adopting these measures. -Emily
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  • Great entry, Katie. Love the level of detail you managed to get in there! Probably won't be able to compete with coal and oil any time the next decade, but definitely a great technology to look into! Keep it up :) -Rune (Norway)
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